Okanagan soldier remembered at Vimy Ridge

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The annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the site of one of the most important battles of the First World War was moved up to Nov. 2 this year to accommodate the presence of a group of Aboriginal veterans from Canada.

A large crowd of onlookers watched as French and Canadian veterans, soldiers and dignitaries gathered in the Canadian war cemetery at Vimy Ridge to pay tribute to the almost 20,000 dead who rest there. Thirty-five hundred Canadian soldiers fell during the April 9, 1917 assault on the ridge, including at least 35 Aboriginal soldiers.

The many local people in attendance witnessed something that's never been seen during the previous 86 anniversaries of the Armistice. And the very curious French people strained to get a view of the First Nation, Metis and Inuit cultural performers who were part of the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey (ASJ). An Inuit lighting of the lamp ceremony, a performance by Metis fiddler Sierra Noble and an honor song with First Nation dancers in full regalia were all part of the morning's program.

Veterans Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri told the gathering about the exploits of a Native rancher from the Head of the Lake Band in the Okanagan who was decorated for his actions that day.

"Private George McLean was one of the soldiers who scaled the walls of history that day," the minister said. "At Vimy, he would distinguish himself and earn a Distinguished Conduct Medal for launching a solo attack against a group of enemy soldiers during the assault on Vimy Ridge. The private's citation describes the results:

'Single-handed he captured 19 prisoners, and later, when attacked by five more prisoners who attempted to reach a machine-gun, he was able- although wounded-to dispose of them unaided, thus saving a large number of casualties.'"

As the several busloads full of ASJ members arrived for the ceremony, they drove past land that still bears the scars of that battle and, almost a century later, offers a reminder of just how great and fearsome were the forces that were employed during the Great War. Electrified fences and signs warning against trespassing are everywhere.

The landscape resembles the pock-marked surface of a golf ball, dimpled everywhere with the craters of artillery shells, some small and some frighteningly large. The main reason for the signs is to protect people from stepping on the still unexploded ordnance that is regularly found in the area. All of the trees on the land behind the electrified fences are about the same height and thickness, a reminder that very little grew there during the darkest days of the war. Sheep graze behind the fences and are the only safe means of keeping the grass from growing too high.

Guarnieri told the crowd, in English and in French, that Vimy holds a special place in Canadian history. It was here that Canada came of age as a country, rather than a mere colony.

"It was here at Vimy that Canada first reached the summit of military achievement. It was here that all Canadian units in the war would fight together and it was here that Canada stood alone in victory," she said.

"Historians look back at Vimy as a defining and unifying moment in our history. Our nation captured a key summit, a Canadian stamp had been placed on world history and Canada had earned a separate signature on the Treaty of Versailles, a right reserved for only the great powers, the most powerful nations on earth."

The minister also briefly noted that while Aboriginal soldiers were seen as equals on the battlefield, things would be different when they returned home.

"When Aboriginal soldiers emerged from the trenches alongside thousands of other Canadians, a unity emerged that was welded in battle, but would take years to forge at home," she said.